Unlikely Alliance
by FromHakaryou
Summary: The young Autobot Blaster finds himself stranded in an unknown tunnel system, but he's not alone...


This is a slightly altered RP between myself and my significant other. I played Blaster and Rumble, and he played Soundwave and Frenzy. This takes place back on Cybertron, before the events of the first Michael Bay Transformers movie, before Contagion.

~*~*~

The world was dark around him and the logically-minded Decepticon knew that there was a good reason for it. Though, at the current time, he was having a hard time concentrating enough to determine what that reason was. All he knew was that he was damaged, quite damaged and that his systems had diverted themselves to take care of his primary functions and help to heal and care for his casseticons.

Yes, that was why his surroundings were so dark.

As he continued to come around, back to conscious thought, he began manually diverting power to the systems that would be useful to him, sight included. Golden red optics flared to life as well as a few other small lights that littered the decepticon's large body. The lights danced on stone walls as they flickered, low power and grave injury making their operations sporadic at best. Quickly, though his central processor functioning still seemed sluggish, he determined that he had ended up in some sort of structure, seeming natural in origin, though, from what he could tell there were very few openings in his cave-like surroundings and that the exit/entrance was most likely sealed up by whatever explosion had injured him and quite possibly the reason he had ended up here.

He attempted to move, but, as he did, he felt something amiss and paused. He felt the unfamiliar feeling of panic rise in his chest and cause his spark to pulse erratically. He felt the echoing pulses of his casseticons from within...but not all of them. Rumble. Frenzy. They were not there. They had not been inside when he was attacked....ambushed. Yes, that had been it. A very well-coordinated surprise attack to get the best of him. Though memories were still just unreachable and he couldn't recall who had been the cause of his injuries.

Blaster let out a shout and tumbled heels-over-helm as he barely dodged a shot to his side. Landing with a thud just under what had once been a busy bridge, his legs way over his helm as he landed in a U position. He sighed and leaned forward to inspect the small injury to the outside of his left leg. It wasn't major, but it was certainly going to be a hassle. He curled up against the various pieces of debris and powered down his optics as his attacker swooped in to make sure he'd been 'defeated'.

The dark blue and purple Seeker seemed to cackle as he gave a half-assed scan of the area and took off.

Blaster powered back up his optics and narrowed their scope. Slaggin' Decepticons. When he was a child it hadn't been this way, 'course he was used to being pursued and shot at, though not by Cybertronians using deadly force. He reached up to put a hand on his helm, stepped forward, and fell once more. He had just enough time to register that he was falling a greater distance than before, and that his landing would probably not be fun, when the ground met his back solidly. He groaned and powered his optics back down at the sound of bending and breaking armor.

He remained still for a moment longer, regaining his sense of composure, letting his equilibrium gauge catch up before reaching to rub the back of his helm. He let out a slight whine as he ran his hand again over his helm - one of his receptors had been broken off. He fingered the broken shaft and shook his helm.

"Man, scrap this." He stood shakily, flaring up his optics to give him a little light in the dark ... tunnel. He looked up and around curiously. It seemed as if the years of debris gathering under the bridgeway had formed a tunnel. He reached out and gave the walls a slight shove. A fairly stable tunnel too.

He put a hand over his chest as Eject stirred and he smiled softly to himself. He was becoming accustomed to hearing the little guy, to feeling his spark so close - but he was still so young. Couldn't let him out here, not in an enviroment like this. Nah, Eject needed sterile surroundings, at least for a while longer, at least until the medics could figure out his malfunction. Blaster stumbled and let out a laugh, catching himself on the wall.

"This was just 'possed ta be recon, man."

Even under the worst of circumstances, the decepticon known as Soundwave's audios functioned at a higher level than almost anyone he'd come across. It was not a boast, simply the truth. He'd heard the commotion echo around the other end of the makeshift tunnel as he lay crumpled against a wall. He could hear the sounds moving closer, a voice, footsteps, and an odd energy signature were approaching him. In a matter of nano seconds, the other bot would literally stumble across him. Logical dictated that he make the first move, even as incapacitated as he was. He could not avoid detection, that was clear.

"Decla-are your loyalty Cybertro-onian." he monotoned, though his usually firm voice broke in several places. Not the image he wished to project, but nothing could be done about that. Along with his ultimatum, the whine of a weapon charging could be heard as he raised his gun level with the darkness that contained the approaching figure.

Blaster froze in his tracks and cursed himself mentally - he should have scanned for signatures! Sure he was new to the whole Autobot thing, most Autobots were. The underground rebellion was over and now they were all forced into this war. He chalked it up to inexperience and promised himself, and his ill child that if they made it through he'd never make the same mistake again. Hearing the whine of a weapon he immediately reached for his own and took aim into the darkness. He quickly noted a faint glow of red off in one corner and narrowed his bright blue optics in response. A Decepticon. Just his luck.

"I'm an Autobot an' proud of it!" He clicked his gun into ready position, and held as still as he could.

Soundwave heard the click of a weapon in response to his own and concentrated his optics on the darkness. He could pinpoint the position of the other life form by sound alone easily, but aiming for specific areas worked best using one's optics. His energy depleted optic sensors picked up on a faint blue glow and adjusted the aim of his weapon. Suddenly, the whine increased in pitch as the small hand-held pistol prepared to fire. It was just then, however, that the sound cut off abruptly and the function light on the side of the small weapon blinked out. Soundwave felt a mixture of annoyance anger flare within him. There was only one thing for him to do, so defenseless. Bluff.

"Sta-and down Au~utobot or I will fire." he said, voice fluctuating with a mechanical whine as he spoke.

"I could say the same ta you, Decepticon." Blaster returned the bluff, feeling Eject become increasingly agitated. He risked giving away too much information and removed one hand from his gun to place his hand on his chestplate, attempting further to comfort his cassetticon. He flared his optics hard, intending to temporarily blind the Decepticon. He knew he'd heard that voice before, but he couldn't place it. He was no authority on Decepticon personel, but a voice like that didn't just fade into the background. He kicked himself for not paying more attention when he was being briefed.

Soundwave was fully annoyed now. His casseticons, small and relatively helpless were out there somewhere and he was stuck in a completely useless bluffing game with some autobot. Though something about the autobot intrigued him. His energy signature was...different. Familiar in an odd kind of way.

"Leave no-ow and i will allow you to live." he threatened, though in his state, his threats were mostly mute. He felt around internally and found that of his repertoire of abilities, he could still use his energy disruptor. He would only use that particular talent if in dire need. To his dismay, most other options seemed closed to him as readings on his own internal functions showed barely enough energy to keep himself and his charges online.

His gun remained leveled at the blue optics as they, quite suddenly flared to brilliant life, momentarily blinding the decepticon until he could dim his own optics in return. Raising the arm that was not holding his gun to shield his face as an instinct, Soundwave looking out from under it at the now-illuminated autobot. His expression was, as it always was, unreadable.

Blaster made a split-second decision and lunged forward, dropping his own gun, to grab the Decepticon. He wrapped both hands around the wrist holding the gun and tried to pry the gun out of the Decepticon's fingers while he shied away from the light.

"An' maybe if you relax - we can get outta here!" He shouted in response, voice strained as he continued to pull on the gun. He was too young for this! He wasn't trained for this, slaggit!

"Look, you might not wanna hear this, 'cause I know I sure as sigma don't, but we ain't gettin' outta here on our own! That hole I fell in's just too high up for either o' us to reach, man, and you - well, you're in a sorry state."

Springing into as much action as he could in his current condition, Soundwave say up quickly as the autobot lunged forward and grabbed his gun arm. With his other hand, he grabbed the bot by the shoulder and attempted to fling him off with all the remaining strength he had, surprising strength. In the process, however, he lost grip on his pistol and it was flung across the cave. He leaned forward to try and make a last minute dive for the weapon before it skittered out of reach on the ground and at the same time, attempted to avoid the autobot's attack. Neither seemed successful as he only ended up crashing to his side. He pushed himself up again and turned quickly to the autobot, one hand instinctively laid against his chest as he felt the restless sparks of his charges flare.

"I function, that iiiis enough." he lied. He was becoming increasingly worried about his two wayward casseticons, though he knew they still functioned wherever they were. He also knew how fragile they were and that at any second he could feel the agonizing pang of their loss.

"Release me auto-obot."

Blaster stumbled away from the Decepticon as he toppled over, and he frowned deeply.

"Look man... I don't like it any more than you do, but - I gotta get outta here! I got things-things I need ta take care of. If you wanna stay down here 'till recharge deprivation gets ya then be my guest. One less Decepticon I gotta look out for. But - I need your help." He slowly knelt down and held his hands in the air. "I don't like doin' this but - I'm beggin' ya. I go-I got important things I gotta do. Things that - that don't concern the Decepticons." He powered down his optics slowly as he reached for Soundwave's gun and slowly handed it back to him. "Now - you c'n shoot me, or see the logic in the situation."

Soundwave watched the autobot for a moment as he pushed himself noisily back into a sitting position. He reached out and accepted his weapon, hand lingering near the autobots for a few long nanoclicks. He spoke almost before he even knew what he was saying. Normally, the communications officer was not so rash.

"The gun in nonfunctional. I could not have fired upon you." he informed the autobot as he leaned back against the wall for a moment setting the weapon at his side. Being so close to the autobot, Soundwave felt something. In the academy, he'd had no equal at reading energy signatures, but it took the internal squirming of his small companions for him to really have a guess at what was so different about this autobot. With that inkling, Soundwave felt a glimmer of hope.

Perhaps, if he was correct, shared understanding would aid him in locating Rumble and Frenzy. He coughed a little and winced at the energon that gurgled in his throat. Internal damage was extensive.

"You are corre-ect autobot, logic dictates that our immediate situation would benefit from a combined effort." he managed to say. He thrummed his core slightly to settle his casseticons who, he imagined, could only be reacting to the small beings the autobot may have possessed within him.

Blaster smiled a little as the Decepticon revealed his bluff.

"If it makes ya feel any better, I've got horrible aim. Even up close I probably woulda missed ya." He moved to stand and took a good look around, zooming in and out as much as the dim lights would let him. He was attempting to make some kind of map for this increasingly vast tunnel of debris. He turned back to the Decepticon as he continued speaking and smiled greatly. War had not yet settled into his processor - the Decepticons were the enemies, but he had not yet locked out all possibilities.. no matter what Kup had told him was in his best interest.

"Good to see you understand reason." He hesitated as Eject began shuddering once more. He needed a medic. Blaster cursed himself for offering to go on this mission so soon. He rubbed at the back of his helm and regarded Soundwave for a moment.

"How bad are your injuries? Can you stand? Walk?"

Soundwave hesitated for a moment, ignoring, for the most part, the autobot's small talk. He pulled both legs in with some effort and lifted one hand to brace himself on the wall. With that, he attempted to push himself to his feet. The first attempt was unsuccessful and he stumbled, but after a moment, he was able to pull himself into a standing position, leaning heavily on the wall. His arms shook, as did the joints in his legs from the strain with so little energy. As he stood, he reveal a pool of energon that he'd been sitting in, his own.

"Affirmative. I am a-able to stand. I do not believe i will be mobile, however, without assistance." he took a step and stumbled, reaching out with his other hand as well for balance. His palm connected with the autobot's chest, only half by accident. He stopped and looked at him. He was right.

Blaster recoiled almost immediately from the Decepticon's touch, but kicked himself in the processor. He had just offered to help. He moved slowly back towards the Decepticon and slid up beside him, swinging Soundwave's arm over his pauldren. He sighed.

"The name's Blaster." He offered, placing a hand gingerly on Soundwave's other side as he took a tentative step forward. He took a moment to scan the nearby tunnels, of which there were many, and decided on a course. Turning them slightly he began leading them down the path at a slow and steady pace.

"This place, man... bizare."

Soundwave was not much for mind games, usually. When the lives of his cassiticons hung in the balance, however, he could make an acception. He allowed himself to be draped over the autobot's shoulders. He played along.

"My designation is Soundwave." he said and then, lifted his other arm, the one that he was not leaning on the autobot with, to touch the other cybertronian's chest again, gently.

"I sense another life form within you." he said bluntly, letting that statement hang for a moment.

Blaster's steps faltered and he looked over at Soundwave in shock. He'd heard things... bad things, about Decepticons and all their rules and superiority complexes. He batted Soundwave's hand away and narrowed his optic scope, ignoring Eject as he made a strange sound for only Blaster to hear.

"And? You gonna back out now, huh, Decepticon?" He was never, never going on another recon mission again. He would just suck up all the yelling. His job was to be at base - work the communcation lines. Encrypt and encode. No more.

Soundwave hesitated. His plan would only work if the autobot understood. Something told him that it would happen the way he predicted, but he still worried. He worked very hard to conceal his nature from his fellow decepticons, what would this revelation do to him? to them?

"No." he told the autobot shortly, a strange kind of anxiety, of fear flashed behind his eyes. He had to do this, for Rumble and Frenzy's sakes. He needed the autobot to find them for him. He pulled back the arm that had just been batted aside and laid it on his own chestplate.

"You are splitspark." he declared before reaching for the autobot's other hand. He took in a deep cooling breath. He would understand. He grabbed Blaster by the wrist and brought his hand up to splay his fingers on his chestplate, allowing him to feel what few others had.

Blaster almost shot backwards, almost decided to just leave the Decepticon to his fate and find some way out on his own - until he realized what was happening. The word Split Spark hissed into his audios like a curse, but the second his hand made contact with the Decepticon's chestplate he knew. He understood. His optics flared and grew wide as he stared at his hand in disbelief. Why hadn't he picked up on this before?! Another Split Spark... no, no a Decepticon Split Spark. Why had they allowed Soundwave to join them? With all their anti-conformity propaganda...

"You too." Blaster muttered after a second, pulling his hand away as if touching something indecent. His central processor warred for a moment silently before he looked back up towards Soundwave's visor.

"Looks like we got more in common than just a bad sense o' direction."

Soundwave felt...violated for a few seconds. The sharing of something so intimate was almost utterly foreign to the decepticon, almost. He composed himself quickly, however, and nodded to his companion.

"Yes." he acknowledged Blaster's attempt at humor before cutting to the chase. "And as you requested that we combine our efforts to escape, I must make a request of you as well." he said continuing to pause in their search for the exit. He rested a hand gently against his own chest for a moment. "Two of my casseticons are missing. They were separated from me during the blast that knocked me into this place. They are young, frail. Much like your own. I must find them. Without me they will be unable to heal properly if injured." He stated with an unasked question, not directly anyway. Will you help me autobot? His eyes asked, flaring for a moment in time with his spark.

Blaster listened, his hand unconsciously in a fist against his chest as Soundwave's words shook him. Missing? Two of them? Blaster had only Eject, and the thought of not being able to see his cassetticon, let alone know they were missing altogether... He shook his helm to clear his thoughts and gave a nod.

"At the risk of soundin' like the poster boy for the Autobot cause, man, all life is precious. I can't let them terminate out there all alone... especially since I-I know how you must feel." He gave another small, half smile and for a fleeting second entertained the possibility of taking Soundwave back to Autobot HQ with him. Of convincing Soundwave to join the Autobot cause. His blue optics seemed to reflect this idea as they flared in a heroic way.

Soundwave smiled inwardly to himself.

"I am in your debt autobot." he said simply before turning to continue their search for a way out. He turned his head this way and that, surveying the area and then, he looked directly down the tunnel and focused their.

"The echo frequencies become longer in the direction in which we are walking. The tunnel becomes larger there." he informed Blaster, an attempt at changing the subject away from his casseticons. He could not stop thinking about them, if he continued to talk about them, he would lose his focus completely.

Blaster nodded and followed Soundwave, hoovering at his side attentively, unable to shake off the feeling of having found another split spark... Someone just like him. He had so many questions. Was Soundwave older than Blaster? He acted that way... but there were plenty of young bots who acted old. Blaster frowned as Eject stirred again, too young yet to actually speak to him in words.

"Bigger?" He said, once he realized Soundwave had been talking to him. "That could be good an' bad." He powered his optics up a click or two higher and moved to walk slightly ahead of Soundwave. "How are we gonna find 'em? You got any idea where they might be?"

Soundwave stumbled along, keeping his composure as best he could under the circumstances.

"The coordinates of our location before we were separated is the only indication of where Rumble and Frenzy might are." he said and paused, he had not planned on revealing their names. It seemed that his preoccupied central processor was effecting his actions afterall.

"It seems to be a structure, built and covered perhaps, by debris over time." he offered as they walked into a larger room-like area that even had support beams. Maybe part of the old Cybertronian ventilation system or power grid. How far had he gone from where he'd originally been thrown? He silently fretted and recalled the coordinates over and over to reassure himself that that particular knowledge had not been lost.

Blaster took a few uneasy steps into the room and gave a slow spin around.

"Woah..." He mused quietly to himself, awed by the size of the underground room he now found himself in. Stepping a little further towards the center of the room he made a rather large splash, and picked up his foot to look at the liquid. It was dark - it looked like... fuel. He pulled a slight face and looked back towards Soundwave as he spoke up.

"You think they ended up down here as well, or would they still be on the surface. Can't you- can't you talk to them?" He voiced hesitantly, then stumbled forward a bit and placed his hand firmly over his chestpiece as Eject began to wail rather loudly. In response to what, though, Blaster was not sure.

Soundwave felt a pang. He would be able to talk with them, would be able to comm. them had they been older, had they been more developed. He could sense the very young spark within Blaster and, while Rumble and Frenzy were not THAT young, they were still not old enough or strong enough to make that connection over distance. And they were still young enough that speaking was not either of their strong suits. Frenzy in particular. Soundwave shook his head.

"No, i cannot communicate with them over such distance. They are too small yet." he informed Blaster silently hoping they had not made a fall of this magnitude. "I am unable to determine whether they ware more likely to be located on the surface or in the tunnel." He felt a strange change in the energy around him as he stepped up next to Blaster. His core flared for a moment.

"Your casseticon, he is very small." he said, the child's wail making the air around them practically vibrate.

Blaster listened with growing apprehension to Soundwave's cold voice. He was speaking so cooly, so detatched about his cassetticons. Blaster felt doubt creep up on him, after all... Soundwave was a Decepticon. Could he - could he possibly not care what state his cassetticons were in? They could be terminated by this point, and yet Soundwave was all facts and hypothesis. If it was Blaster, if it was Eject out there. Blaster looked over quickly at Soundwave, a little surprised that the blue mech was now so close to him. He looked back down towards his chestpiece where Eject's wailing could still be heard, though muffled.

"He-he is." He answered hesitantly. "He's sick."

Soundwave actually cocked his head to one side, as if listening intently.

"You do not know any other split sparks do you?" he asked, a hint of amusement behind his normally monotoned voice. He reached out, then paused as he shifted his eyes to meet Blaster's blue optics.

"I may be able to aid you." he offered, hand still hovering, as if asking permission to touch him again. He did so the first time without, but it was merely to confirm his suspicions.

Blaster narrowed his optics at Soundwave as he spoke, suddenly feeling very young and stupid for being out on his own with a cassetticon so ill.

"I don't, no. We ain't exactly normal, ya know?" He said quickly and with a bit more bite than he had intended. He let Soundwave's words hang for a moment, but he could not ignore Eject's cries. He moved to stand rigid, keeping his optics narrowed.

"How?"

Soundwave's hand remained in mid-air, close to Blaster's chestpiece.

"I cannot perform a medical evaluation upon him, for i am not a medic, but i can teach you to calm him, ease his disco-omfort if you wish it." he offered. He was not sure why he was stopping the search for this. Rumble and Frenzy were the only important things right now. But something about the cries of one so young, and ill, pulled on his spark. His remaining cassetticons seemed upset by it as well as they moved restlessly within him.

Blaster looked away, a slight bit of shame on his faceplate as hot energon colored his cheeks.

"No need to run a diagnostic - I know what's wrong with him, I mean.. I know why he's sick. I still opted to come all the way out here for-" He paused and shook his helm before looking back at Soundwave. Decepticon or no, he might not get another chance like this. The other Cybertronians could only teach him so much, Split Sparks had never been mainstream on Cyberton, and nobody took the time to document even the most basic of functions where they were concerned. Blaster shrugged.

"A-alright. Go ahead."

Soundwave wasted no time in placing his hand on Blaster's chest and just...feeling the child there. The connection was dim since Blaster and he were not bond-mated, nor shared a channel, nor were connected in any other way. Soundwave was simply going on the fact that he knew what he was feeling for, from experience. A frequency. It could be transmitted, sure, but to really know, it had to be felt. After a long stretch of nanoseconds, Soundwave removed his hand. He then, for the second time, though he paused longer this time after remembering the feeling of violation from moments ago, took Blaster's hand in his own and placed it on his chest.

"Each casseticon sparkling has a specific optimum core frequency." Soundwave thrummed his core for Blaster to feel, though that too felt like an invasion of his privacy. "Use this frequency." he instructed.

Blaster looked away as Soundwave touched his chestplate again. It was odd, and he powered down his optics as Eject responded in earnest to the strange signature being fed to him through Blaster's protective outer armor. Blaster powered his optics back up as Soundwave removed his hand and stared for a long second as the Decepticon forced the same touch in reverse. His fingers twitched slightly against Soundwave's chest, but he listened intently. He could do this - for Eject. If it would help the little cassetticon calm, find some peace until they could get back to base, then there was nothing Blaster wouldn't do. He nodded a little.

"Unmodified? Jus-just like you did? Or... signaled? Encoded?"

"Unmodified." he said shortly. "The signal will be tainted with signaling and encoding, it must be directly from spark to spark. You will find that it will work better for you since you are the one bound to the sparkling." Soundwave felt a wave of longing and thrummed his core in harmony for his three casseticons, none of which were nearly as young as Blaster's charge, or his own Rumble and Frenzy. He quickly was reminded of the task at hand and slowly, awkwardly walked out into the middle of the huge room. He scanned it briefly though, to his surprise the place seemed foreign to him.

Blaster watched Soundwave walk away, and stared at the Decepticon's back for a nanoclick more before powering down his optics and placing a hand on his chestpiece. Here goes, he thought before taking in a cooling breath and doing as instructed. He stumbled a little, feeling slightly weak in the knees as his spark was immediately touched by that of Eject's, and the cassetticon quieted. He seemed to curl up tighter and found recharge. Blaster powered up his optics slowly and let out a huff of breath.

He looked up at Soundwave and felt a flare of indignation, and then respect and gratitude for the other Split Spark. Decepticon or not, there were things that crossed faction boundaries. He loped forward into the mucky fuel until it was almost at his knee joints and he stood next to Soundwave. He looked up and around, powering back up his optics to the fullest they could go.

"Man, this place... How'd somethin' so big go so unnoticed?"

Soundwave realized as he heard the thick splashing noises nearby that he hadn't even noticed he was standing in a huge puddle. He was losing feeling in his extremities. He pushed the thought to the back of his mind. Rumble and Frenzy were most important now.

"My scans indicate that this place predates the current city above by thousands of years, an exact date would be impossible. This place, whatever it's purpose, is very old." he said as he started walking again, wading through fuel muck with relative ease. He pushed on despite his deteriorating physical state, intrigued by odd sonic echoes from the other side of the room, all the way across the nameless expanse.

Blaster nodded. "Yeah, and this fuel smells awful." He mumbled, glancing upwards. He moved towards one of the support beams and placed a hand on it.

"It's startin' to look like this ain't as natural as I first suspected." He turned to look at Soundwave and gave a soft shrug. "It doesn't help us escape, no matter how old it might be... and we gotta get back to the surface to start our search for you Rumble and Frenzy, yeah?"

Soundwave felt himself twitch a little at hearing someone else say their names. Most cybertronians that he knew did not even know they were a part of him, let alone knew their names.

"Affirmative." he answered, swallowing the odd feelings. "I am picking up on an anomaly. If my calculations are correct, this structure had many exits built into it's walls and i believe one of them may be open enough to allow us passage."

"Right on!" Blaster shouted in triumph, sloshing his way through the liquid towards Soundwave in excitement. He opened his mouth to reply when his foot caught on something under the surface of the dark water and, in spite of his flailing, he fell face first into the old fuel. He pushed himself upwards to his knee joints quickly, spitting and wiping at his face plate with a more than disgusted look.

"Oh, man, vile!" He cawed, spitting again. He looked at his hands and groaned.

"Man..." He turned and shoved a hand back into the water, fishing for whatever it was that had tripped him... his hand connected with the object, a slightly rounded object. He narrowed one optic and picked the object up, bringing it to the surface and into the beam of light provided by his optics... His thumb was resting almost naturally within the hole of what was once an optic belonging to the Cybertronian who's head he now held in his hand.

Soundwave considered continuing on and ignoring his new companion, afterall, he may have found a way out of this place. But then he remembered, he needed Blaster's help if he was to get out of here and find his missing casseticons. He turned around and cocked his head just slightly at the sight. He paused, taking another step towards Blaster and looked at the head that was now held in his hands.

"I believe now, that this might be some sort of...arena." he ventured, looking at the head...the configuration was like nothing he'd ever seen. It was older than he could rightly estimate.

Blaster shuddered, chucked the helm as far as he could and skittered backwards on his aft in the water before moving quickly to his feet.

"An arena... Oh man... I'm gonna have bad back-up filing for weeks 'cause o' this." He wrung his hands for a moment before calming himself and putting a hand on his chestplate to remind him that there were more important things to worry about. He looked back over at Soundwave.

"I-I'm sorry... you were saying? About an exit?"

"This way." he offered, turning around and heading, stumbling a few times, toward the opposite side of the arena. It seemed now that pure power of central processor was keeping Soundwave going. He was still dripping energon, though most of the injuries appeared to be internal. Slogging through the fuel puddle that gradually got shallower until it faded out like the shores of a lake, Soundwave approached the wall and, though his readings were telling him there was a door here somewhere, most of the exits seemed to have been blocked by rocks and fallen debris. He scanned and began searching with his hands for weak spots.

Blaster kept a silent pace behind Soundwave, watching him walk with increasing concern. He walked around as the Decepticon came to a solid wall and rubbed the back of his helm curiously. About to say something he noticed Soundwave feeling the walls, and after a click he realized what the other must have been doing. He quickly moved forward and did the same, running nimble fingers over each crack and seam in an attempt to find anything out of place.

"How do you know there's an opening here?"

Soundwave continued to feel around the pile of stone, metal and other debris for some kind of give, some indication of a doorway.

"My scan indicated that there was a door on this wall somewhere, though i cannot be as specific to it's location as i if i were functioning at full capacity. The wall must be very thin somewhere on this wall, or the echo relay pattern would not have indicated an opening." He said, feeling, then leaning against the wall for a moment for support while he rested.

Blaster frowned as he watched Soundwave, and nodded. The wall was thinner someplace... He cocked his helm to the side and lifted a hand before pounding it against the wall. He stood still as ice as the sound vibrated against the wall, shuddering to his left. He took a few steps towards the shudder and repeated the action. Again the sound vibrated, seeming to hesitate or stutter just a few feet further. He smiled, pleased with himself, and ran up to the distortion. Just once more, to confirm his theory, he banged his hand against the thin wall and the door immediately swung open, permitting Blaster to fall on his faceplate inside the exit tunnel.

The relief that flooded Soundwave as the doorway was finally located was not evident on his faceplate, but in the hot breath he exhaled, as if he'd been holding it in, was indication enough. He moved as quickly as he could to the doorway and looked through, into the darkness, picking Blaster up by a shoulder piece and helping him to his feet awkwardly. He flared his optics to provide a little light. His assumptions were correct from the vibrations he'd felt. behind the now-open door, there was a stairway up. It looked as if this place was built low to begin with in either a natural, or man made valley of some kind. Soundwave stumbled into the passageway and began to ascend the cluttered stairway, leaning heavily on the wall to his right.

Blaster smiled a little and started up the stairs at a brisk pace, eventually slowing until he walked side by side with Soundwave. He marveled at the detail in the structure, reaching out to touch the wall. He recoiled almost instantly as he remembered what it was they had stumbled into. He looked back up at Soundwave and took a step closer to him.

"Are you ... functioning alright?"

Soundwaves found that he could not, or did not wish to lie to this autobot and he was not sure why. He supposed it was because there was really no point.

"I am functioning at less than half capacity." he said calmly, practically pressing his upper half to the wall to hold himself up. His legs felt quite weak and he was sure that little bout of activity, walking by himself for that length of time, he'd pushed himself too far in this state.

"I will continue to function, i must find my casseticons..." he said, almost more to himself than anything. It was as if he were willing himself to go on.

Blaster felt a small pang as he listened to the Decepticon, and he moved up beside him as he finished speaking. He grabbed Soundwave's arm and pulled it over his shoulders as he again took hold of the Decepticon's side. He hoisted him up enough to bare weight down onto Blaster instead of the wall and smiled.

"Alright, we cand do that. Gotta getchu to the top of the stairs... then we'll go from there." He nodded, encouraged onwards as he looked up the stairs to find there was another source of light beaming down towards them to illuminate the way. They were almost out. Then - then he just had to find two little Decepticon cassetticons....

Soundwave attempted to pull away, but only slightly. Blaster was right in thinking that traveling this way would be quickly than Soundwave trying to support his own battered body by himself. He saw the light and, only a few nanoseconds later they were out into the open. Soundwave could feel the dry winds of Cybertron and knew, without a doubt that they were above ground now. he couldn't say that he missed it, but the dark underground did seem to become more and more disconcerting and disorienting the longer they stayed there. As they emerged, something nearby made Soundwave stop and cock his head slightly. He knew something was amiss, but his physical state was starting to effect his processor and he found it hard to lock on to what he felt...but whatever it was it was very close....

Blaster quickly flipped down his visor as they stepped into the Cybertronian daylight. He waited until his optics recalibrated before taking a quick look around.

"Man, I don't have a clue where we are. Non'a this looks familliar." He shook his head and looked up/over at Soundwave. "What about you? You recognize-" He paused as he noticed the tilt of the Decepticon's helm. "Hey, Soundwave, you in there?"

Soundwave did not say anything for a moment longer, listening. Nothing. But something was still...odd. Why couldn't he latch onto it? He shook his head, thoughts fuzzy and unclear.

Just as he turned to reply to Blaster, the sound of twin shouts sounded somewhere behind them. They were small, high pitched and sounded a little weak in volume. But what they lacked in volume, they made up for in spirit! The two little forms ambushed Blaster from behind and to the side and, as much as they were capable, attempted to tackle him, though they only really reached part of his legs even with a jump.

Blaster let out a surprised shout and danced away from Soundwave, kicking out his leg in an attempt to dislodge the attackers - when he glanced down. His optics grew wide and he held his leg suspended. He turned to look over his pauldren at Soundwave.

"Call 'em off man! They're gonna bust m'circuits if they keep bitin' me."

Soundwave fell backwards as Blaster left his side and landed squarely on his aft. It took a moment for him to understand what had just happened, but when he realized what was going on, his core thrummed loud. So loud he could swear Blaster even heard it and his spark practically lit up his chest, dark blue light seeping from every crack in his armor.

"Rumble, Frenzy." he called, eyes glowing brightly. Frenzy was the first to dislodge himself from Blaster and practically tripped over himself running to greet Soundwave. He did not say anything but dove into a helpless cling that Soundwave was not sure he'd be able to get him to detach from.

Rumble was not long after Frenzy, forgetting his target completely to clutch Soundwave protectively.

Blaster placed his foot back on the ground and smiled for a moment, looking away. He placed a hand on his chest and felt a small swell of longing for the day when Eject would be healthy enough, strong enough to enjoy the world with him from the outside. He looked back over his shoulder at Soundwave and cleared his exhaust.

"Why don't you come back with me to HQ, Soundwave? We can getchu patched up in no time."

Soundwave allowed the two casseticons to simply hold onto him for the moment. He looked up at Blaster for a long moment. It was certainly true, he'd shared something with the autobot, but he knew his place. Megatron needed him. He would fight for him. He could never be an autobot.

"No Blaster. I will return to my base, and you will go to yours." he stated without much hesitation in a voice that clearly shown that no argument was necessary (his normal voice). He stood up carefully and picked up Rumble, then Frenzy, choosing to hold them for the moment rather than recall them. It was clear that even the stoic Soundwave could not deny the joy at this reunion. He turned, his casseticons in his arms.

"Take care of him autobot." was all he said in parting.

Blaster frowned as he watched Soundwave walk away. He started after him and paused, hand in the air as he prepared to give the Decepticon a long-winded speech... Who was he kidding? He put his hands on his hips and continued watching until he coud no longer see the Decepticon. Decepticons were Decepticons and Autobots were Autobots... Split Spark or not, he and Soundwave had different motives. He sighed and transformed swiftly, peeling out into the street nearby... now if he could just figure out where in sigma he was!


End file.
